Quote:
Originally Posted by PepsiFree
Losing Smith, Patches (with 2 mil retained), and Dadonov actually only gives them an extra $10M in cap space, making for about $13M total going into next offseason (Smith being off the books is already calculated in their $2.5M cap space this offseason). Now, because you traded out Patches and Dadonov, the roster goes down to 9 players, so they need to sign 13 players for $13M, and within those 13 players for $13M they will be attempting to replace what Patches, Smith, Dadonov, and McNabb bring to the team.
Losing as many young players as they have and their upcoming first hurts that even more, of course. With Stone, March, Pietrangelo, Lehner, and Martinez all over 30 going into the next five years and so of those guys nearing 40 by the end of it, that’s a tight window with a rough cap position to manage it through.
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The transformation of this Vegas franchise is an interesting one.
They made a Stanley Cup finals and had their best regular season finish in their inaugural season on the back of having some of the best depth in the league, and an entire roster working together to prove a point.
And they had a plethora of picks, and cap space to work with.
Now 5 seasons later they are the opposite.
Very top heavy with lots of big contracts, have moved out pretty much all picks/prospects, and little cap space to work with. And haven't reached the success of that first season again.
Karlsson, Smith, Marchessault, Theodore, McNabb, and Carrier are the only pieces from that initial 17-18 roster. Smith is gone for sure in the offseason, and potentially one of Karlsson, McNabb, or Marchessault will need to be moved to create more space this offseason as well.